FLUSHING, NY, March 2, 2010 – Crystal Clear, an exhibition of sculpture, prints, videos and micro-installations by Claire Lieberman, will be on display at the Queens College Art Center from Thursday, March 11 through Friday, April 30. On Thursday, March 11, the artist will present a free gallery talk from 6 to 7 pm, and a reception will take place from 5 to 6 pm and 7 to 8 pm. For information on additional events to be scheduled, please visit http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/Art_Library/exhibitions.html.

Crystal Clear introduces an artist who uses multimedia to explore narratives linked to contemporary ideas of survival - personal, political, ecological, etc. Lieberman's sculptures, prints, videos, and micro-installations evoke modern material objects' culture and rapidly changing societal meaning. Drawing on materials and concepts associated with pop culture, technology, and science, Lieberman bridges a gap between physical and intangible, between relative permanence and the ephemeral. She strives to create an “…unfamiliar, if lively realm where formal and innovative practice overlap, even conflict.”

Warm & Fuzzy, a series of mixed-media wall works made of alabaster, Plexiglas, Jell-O, rubber, and video, chronicles the travels of a pair of imaginary stuffed animals. The furry friends, ready for trouble but good at heart, set out on a journey best described as The Odyssey-meets-The Wizard of Oz. During their travels, they encounter all sorts of conflict, thanks to skirmishes with another cohort of children’s toys, all possibly serving as human stand-ins. The viewer, looking at crystal guns and alabaster lifesavers, wonders “Will Warm and Fuzzy ever make it home safe?” In Crystal Clear, the stuffed animal characters re-emerge as small objects made of clear rubber that seem to be melting. Surrounded by large color linoleum-cut prints (titled Whirlpool), that define the outlying areas of their journey, Warm and Fuzzy are located in the context of a natural world infused with both wondrous beauty and foreboding menace.

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Warm & Fuzzy

Lieberman, who has a studio in Bloomington, Illinois, holds a BFA from Tufts University, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and an MFA from Pratt Institute. She has exhibited widely. In New York City, her work has been displayed most recently at The LAB; Pamela Auchincloss Project Space; Trinity Church; and New York Studio School Gallery. She has had one-person shows also at MANIF (Manifestation d’art Nouveau International et Forum), Seoul Art Center, Korea; the Chiaroscuro Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona and Santa Fe, NM; Solomon Fine Art, Seattle, WA; PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; Salina Art Center, Salina, KS; Southeastern Louisiana State University in Hammond; University of Vermont in Burlington; University of Alaska in Anchorage; Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond; and Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA. She has participated in shows at the New York Fine Print Fair; Pulse New York Contemporary Art Fair; Affordable Art Fair; Snug Harbor Sculpture Festival; Chelsea Art Museum; International Print Center in New York; Parker’s Box, Brooklyn; Stephanie Theodore Gallery; Blum Helman Gallery; Rupert Ravens Gallery, Newark, NJ; Shore Institute of Contemporary Art, Long Branch, NJ; Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ; St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY; Long Island University, CW Post Campus; and others. Lieberman has taught sculpture at the College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University since 2000.

Lieberman’s work has been published in Artprice, NY Arts, ARTnews, Sculpture, the New York Times, Brooklyn Rail, Art On Paper, and Art Papers, in exhibition catalogs, and in Camouflage, by Tim Newark (Thames and Hudson/The Imperial War Museum, London, 2007). She has been the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Seaside Institute, FL; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweet Briar; New Pacific Studio, Vallejo, CA; National Endowment for the Arts; and residences at Friche La Belle de Mai, Marseilles, France; Künstlerhaus, Salzburg, Austria; Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY; MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH; Cité Internationale des Arts, American Sculpture Studio, Paris.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Photographs, as well as biographical and sales information, are available upon request.

Visitors to Crystal Clear: Sculpture & Prints by Claire Lieberman may also want to see Scholars, Explorers, Priests: How the Renaissance Gave Us the Modern World (through March 27) and Dalí Today. Dance and Beyond (April 12 – June 12) at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum on campus. For information on these exhibitions and their events, please visit http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/godwin_ternbach.

The Queens College Art Center, founded in 1987, succeeds the Queens College Art Library Gallery established in 1960. In more than 200 exhibitions to date, the Art Center has shown masters like Alice Neel, Joseph Cornell, and Elizabeth Catlett, and introduced scores of artists from around the globe. Focusing on modern and contemporary programming expressive of the best art of our time, this display space presents the works of emerging and established artists in diverse media. Art Center exhibitions support the educational and cultural objectives of Queens College. The shared goal of the Queens College Art Center and of the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College is to provide the means for participating in and upholding a democratic society through learning, adaptation, and critical thinking.